"K-Kaoru-san..." I froze up for a few moments until I heard another cry.
"Kaoru-san! I'm coming!" I repeatedly pushed my weight against the door, however, my efforts were of no avail.
I took a step back and gripped hard on my scythe's handle, hoping that whatever I would do as of the moment would help me in opening the door.
"Please open up." It wasn't like me to be all flustered and rushed, yet right now, there was nothing else that I can do nor feel.
Perhaps it was because of the Crest given to me that I suddenly achieved a generous amount of courage and valor which drive me to be like this.
But truth be told, I was already considering that this might be the start of the weird occurrence that happens every three years... and I'm very determined to help whoever becomes a victim to it, or maybe it was just my Crest.
My vision blurred for a second and as my sight dimmed, I heard myself shout, "Rushed Flurry!", which sucked since it sounded like a name of some move made by a chuunibyou and I didn't count myself as one.
But, after the blur, the door was already cut into pieces and that move gave me a certain sense of satisfaction so I let it go.
However, as I was entering the room, my body moved by itself to rush me to the scene of the crime, where the screaming was coming from and I saw Ikeda Kaoru, glassy eyes with blood running down her mouth, already lifeless as her body was being torn into pieces by a hulking humanoid shape, still muttering, "Please help...", while her arm was getting devoured by the monster.
I almost vomited in disgust, yet something stopped me and my hand gripped harder on the handle of my scythe.
"STOP IT!!!"
I rushed towards the figure, both of my hands now on my scythe's handle, determined to land a blow. Then, the yellow tinge in my vision went more visible and I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Haa!!!"
Probably because of my Crest, my body felt really light and the swing that I made with my scythe paved its way through the air faster than what I expected.
Yet when I looked at where I struck, where the humanoid was supposed to be, to my disappointment, it wasn't there anymore.
It was already beside the room window, giving me a disgusting grin with his teeth painted with blood.
The moonlight lit up his features and once again, I felt the familiar nausea, the feeling of wanting to throw up, as I came to discover more of how the demon looked like.
Full white eyes without any pupils, small patches of skin all throughout its body, showing its already rotten, muscles and tissues, a pair of giant bat wings which looked out of place and hands with claws for nails.
A real demon.
I wasn't able to elaborate much, but on its body was a lot of blood stains, which I was very sure of, weren't its own.
Then, his form repeatedly shrunk down in size and his features changed into that of a normal highschool boy with clothes on, yet his wings were still visible making me sure of the fact that he really is one of the evils from the underworld.
"See yah! She was really tasty... Thanks for being late!" Its grin somehow became nicer to look at, yet the blood was still there, dripping down his chin.
Turning my head to look at Ikeda's corpse, I slightly trembled at the sight of her dismembered body and I quickly turned my gaze back towards the boy, which was just a bit less unpleasant to look at, yet more horrifying.
"Oh, not gonna fight?" The demon's disgusting grin turned into a mischievous smirk and he settled a hand on the window sill before continuing, "Well then, I'm off."
I didn't know what to feel and I came to just watch him jump out the window and fly away from the apartment, leaving behind loud laughter in his trail.
I, once again, looked towards Ikeda Kaoru's body, now without organs or even anything that can be considered as something important for living.
I became very frustrated, sad, angry, I didn't know.
The room didn't look messy at the least. Just a broken vase and a blinking lampshade, that's all. The only thing that destroyed the view was the sight of Ikeda's corpse.
There wasn't much blood stains. I guess the demon was a voracious eater.
She doesn't look so bad if you just look at only her head though.
I shook my head.
Am I really supposed to be looking at the bright side of things right now? Well, that's how it went when my family died.
I smiled because I can drive the car freely, can eat whatever I want to eat, can play whatever I want to play, can do anything I want to do because... they're not there anymore.
What was I supposed to do anyways?
I chuckled gently and for a few moments, I felt myself become lifeless and void of anything, may it be empathy, disgust, anger or whatever emotion one could come up with.
I stared at the corpse again.
After a few more minutes, the yellow tinge in my vision died down and an enormous urge to vomit suddenly popped up in my subconscious.
I somehow found the guts to withdraw the urge through sheer will and as I walked out the door, my sight started having yellow tinges in the edges again... and that was when the voice came out, again too.
"How did your first mission go? Did you enjoy it? "
"Fuck off."
"How was the feeling of being so powerless even though you've always thought of conquering the gods?"
I wasn't able to say anything. Was what happened earlier just for the sake of showing me how pitiful I am?
Yet, something else took my attention. Just how did this voice know about me? I thought that this power was given to random people regardless of their backgrounds?
The female voice gave off a gentle chuckle in response, one that would've passed off as completely harmless were it not for the words she said a few moments ago.
"Enough chit-chat. We'll have our time to talk tomorrow. I've already completely erased any evidence of you being here in this apartment so that no one would mistake you as the culprit."
I turned around to look at the door of the room and saw that it was back to the state of how it was before I slashed it into pieces with my scythe.
"Be thankful to me. Goodnight now. See you tomorrow, Tetsuya."
If I were to base it on her tone, I would've thought that the female behind the voice would've smiled as she said those words, but, that didn't really matter, did it?
"Oh my, please stop thinking now. That would gain you nothing."
"I-"
My vision blacked out.
I woke up, again.
It was already morning and sunlight shone through my window, brightening up my room quite fairly.
Everything seemed normal.
My book of Mythology, titled; Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes was still left opened on my desktop and my room was still a mess.
"It was all just a dream then."
I took my book and put it inside my bag.
I walked my way to school with Mika.
My daily routine.
"What part of the mythology book did you read last night, Tetsuya-kun?" She asked me, the usual. We'd always talk every morning, usually about what we read or what we did the night before.
"The story of Orpheus."
"I see... The one where he used music to bring back his beloved one from the Underworld?"
"Yes, that one, Mika." Oh, I probably forgot to say this, but her full name is Mika Tsukishima. She lives alone too, since her parents work abroad. Yet, I haven't been to her place, just yet.
Maybe someday soon.
But, regarding what happened last night, will that ever happen?
"Or never." I spoke my last thought out loud.
"Never... what?" Mika suddenly leaned in, her eyes fixed on mine.
A sudden blush grew on my cheeks, which I quicky shook off.
"It's nothing."
It was by lunchtime when I noticed that Ikeda Kaoru wasn't present.
Was it true after all? No, that can't be it, right? It's probably just a coincidence. She's probably just sick or something. She might come to class this afternoon.
I looked outside the window and for the first time... no, probably the second time in my life, I felt myself bow down to reality and take in the fact that we normal people don't hold the power over something as influential as fate.
I opened my book, perhaps, it would give me relief if I were to see another story where the gods were swayed to a human's whims.
I found a few chapters, which all ended in tragedy. I was already used to how the endings were, yet, I didn't get the mood to think about exploiting the weaknesses of the gods at all.
Class has already ended.
"Mika might be waiting at the gate already."
I was rushing myself. I wasn't feeling very well since Ikeda Kaoru didn't appear at all.
Then, while I was too focused on walking my way to my locker, with my head down and my book in my right arm, I suddenly bumped into someone of stronger build and I accidentally let go of my book.
"Ah-" I frantically picked it up and prepared myself to apologize as quick as possible.
"I'm sorry-" The words came out of my mouth at the same time with the one I bumped into and when I looked up, I quickly recognized that the person I bumped into was a senior in this school.
A popular one. The one I've been talking about to myself yesterday.
Izanagi Takeshi.
Ikeda Kaoru's boyfriend.
The boyfriend of the girl I just watched getting eaten last night.
Perhaps it was just to pass on my misery to the person who was related to the victim of the incident that I witnessed.
I suddenly spat out.
"It would've been great if you were Orpheus, weren't you, Takeshi-san?", Not knowing whether he knows what I'm talking about, whether if Ikeda Kaoru was really dead, or if my words even make sense, I continued with an emotionless gaze coming from my already lidded eyes, for something changed in me at that very moment.
I felt lifeless once again as I let out my next sentence, "You would've been able to come down to Hades and bring back your Eurydice without any fail, as long as you keep your gaze ahead."
I didn't even know what I meant, but maybe those words I spurted out were actually for me, since he might not even know that his girlfriend was already dead and I said those sentences on the assumption that he does love her.
He probably reached out to me, but I rushed past him, not knowing whether I was embarrassed or frustrated.
"I'm sorry."
It was all I could say, due to the fact that I myself didn't know where I'm coming from and I dragged him into a problem involving my beliefs and the unknown factors of Ikeda Kaoru's death.
I walked home with Mika and it helped a lot, as talking with her lifted my mood up quite a bit.
But, as soon as I opened the door of my house, without greeting anyone since there was no one to greet, a girl's voice told me:
"Welcome home, Tetsuya."
Perhaps, humans can't take in reality as well as the usual when the time comes that it's mixed with unknown and foreign instances for them.
We have yet to fully understand how things work whenever there's something new or something we've always known, yet have never been there before.
I feel like this right now, as in front of me is a person I've never seen in my entire life. Yet, for the very least, I was sure that she wasn't human.
I now have a goddess and whether she is on my side or she would be the one to bring my downfall, I still don't know yet.